It may have gone unnoticed among a Parisian crowd that had flocked to the
Stade de France for one thing and one thing alone, but there also happened
to be a long jump competition going on before the 200 metres showdown
between Usain Bolt and local favourite Christophe Lemaitre.

See you later: Usain Bolt races away from the field in the 200mPhoto: AFP

In terms of Britain’s Olympic medal hopes, what unfolded in the sandpit proved far more significant than the anti-climatic sprint duel, which Bolt won at a canter after technical problems with the starting mechanism had delayed the race for 20 minutes.

Less than a week after Holly Bleasdale smashed the British pole vault, Chris Tomlinson struck another blow for domestic jumping by producing the longest ever jump by a British athlete to regain the British mark he had held for two years from 2007.

His fourth-round effort was measured at 8.35metres - five centimetres further than the record set by Greg Rutherford at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin.

Rutherford had a ring-side view of Tomlinson’s leap as he was also in the competition, and he had the consolation of producing his own season’s best jump of 8.27m.

The signs are looking good for next month’s World Championships in South Korea and, more importantly, for London 2012.

But, just to remind both Britons of the high standards required to win a medal on the global stage, Panamanian Olympic gold medallist Irving Saladino put them in their place with a fourth-round leap of 8.40 to take the first prize. Tomlinson was second and Rutherford third.

"Obviously, I’m very happy to do a personal best and get my British record back, but now it’s just a question of building on it," said Tomlinson.

"I didn’t win the competition, so it just shows that there are people out there jumping further than me at the end of the day. The Olympics are next year and it’s all about Greg and myself targeting a medal there."

Both men remained trackside to watch the 200m, the final event of the evening, though they may have wondered why they had bothered.

After the problems with the start, which brought boos from the packed crowd and seemed only to add to the tension etched on Lemaitre’s face, the race failed to live up to its much-hyped billing

Bolt, who looked deeply annoyed at being kept on the track for so long, brushed aside the challenge of the French double European champion with predictable ease and would have run comfortably under 20 seconds if he had kept going all to the way to the finish line.

Instead, he was jogging with 10 metres to go and crossed the line in 20.03sec. Lemaitre set a season’s best of 20.21sec but was still a long way behind, and the the sighs of the crowd told the story.

"It was windy out there and I got cold in the delay," complained Bolt after the race. "In the straight my legs didn’t feel good, but I got through injury free."